<p>Can any current Penn students tell me how difficult it is to be a varsity athlete and a student at Wharton? I’m not talking football or basketball- lesser sport but it is a three season sport.</p>
<p>why not just say the sport?</p>
<p>Because I prefer to maintain a little bit of anonymity for my kid.</p>
<p>Considering that Penn is Division I, yeah, I'd say it's likely very difficult. Especially if it's a three season thing like Crew</p>
<p>The DP had an article about the Penn basketball player who won Ivy player of the year award in regards to his NBA chances. I think he said something like even a tryout is an honor, but he graduated from "the best business school in the country". Plus, I do believe Wharton admission is something among the things dangled at recruits, as Penn cannot give scholarships. Thats not to say it's not difficult, but I couldn't answer that one.</p>
<p>wat do u mean penn cannot give out scholarhsips</p>
<p>dreaming_melancholy- Ivy League schools cannot offer merit based scholarships- only need based.</p>
<p>Ivies do not give athletic scholarships. They can give need-based financial aid and ease the admissions process for athletes, but they cannot give scholarships.</p>
<p>The difficulty of playing a sport year round and being a Wharton student depends on yours and the students goals and expectations. I know I've said in lots of previous posts that many people are content to come to Wharton and be B students because they're at Wharton--its prestigious enough that they'll get jobs and they don't want to kill themselves to get A's on the curve. The majority of the athletes that I knew had this attitude. They had a lot going on with sports and traveling for their sport and were constantly tired from their numerous practices, thus school took a backseat very often; thus, they got by Wharton very easily making Bs and Cs. </p>
<p>I knew 1 athlete who worked very hard in his sport and at Wharton and was determined to get A's and have a 3.7+ GPA. Thus, it was extremely difficult for him--all of his time was spent either doing sports things or studying; thus, he had to compromise having a regular social life because its virtually impossible for most people to get straight-As, play a varsity sport, and have an active social life. The way this athlete did well was to prioritize and make it known to his coach that school was #1. He would set up his class schedule in such a way that he had classes back to back, leaving him a block of time to study each day before practice; he couldn't afford to have classes that left him with 30 minute gaps all day long because that isn't enough to be productive. That and he made it very clear to the coach that he wouldn't skip classes for any sports commitment. I know coaches tell parents and recruited athletes that school is #1 but the reality at Penn is much different in that coaches and sometimes the upperclassmen on the team will expect the underclassmen to skip classes and forgo study time to do stuff for the team; there is some peer pressure to make sports number one on lots of the teams. Thus, each student athlete has to decide for himself whether they're willing to stand up to teammates and make it known that sports is only an EC, even at the risk of not being one of the most popular kids on the team.</p>
<p>To whoever was talking about scholarships--its true that Penn can't give athletic scholarships. What the school does instead is to dangle an acceptance to Wharton to stellar athletes who otherwise don't have the stats for wharton; sometimes this goes really far and athletes at Wharton are really far from the stats that are expected even from applicants with special hooks. This becomes obvious sometimes because some of these athletes will admit that they don't have the competencies that Wharton requires and that they are in over their heads.</p>
<p>Thanks, all- especially aj. That is good info.</p>
<p>Hi Mom - I would think the best guess comes from your son's experience in HS ... he is excelling in both school and athletics while lots of kids do not take on sports in HS because of the time commitment ... your son seems to juggle the competing demands well ... and I would think that skill would play in a similar way in college. I've read a few studies that if football and basketball players are excluded that college athletes have a higher than average GPA. I believe that athletes (or musicians or actors or any other very busy folks) are forced into being structured and focused with their time. I'd bet the coach will share the graduation rate and GPA for your son's sport ... and I'd bet they will be very good ... if Penn accepts him in his sport I'd bet he can handle the load. One last suggestion - when he visits Penn I'd suggest he stay overnight with someone from the team and that does his speciality ... that will give him the best view of the lifestyle and requirements. Good luck! (one last comment ... check Olympians in his sport/events and top tier schools are way over represented ... and that probably is not random)</p>
<p>My concern is the unique demands of Wharton. I am reading the book The Running of the Bulls, which portrays the Wharton experience as a real killer. Talk about no life! It concerned me that if it is that intense, what is it like to drop a varsity sport on top of it!</p>
<p>Concern understood ... I did a quick check of the roster on the Penn web site ... I saw about 10 kids whose bio showed their college within Penn ... 7 arts & sciences, 2 wharton, and 1 engineer ... I have no idea if those numbers reflect the split of the school overall or if that wharton number is low. (there were a bunch more kids with bios I did not read)</p>
<p>There are over 200 varsity athletes in Wharton - so a lot of students do it. Don't pay attention to Running of the Bulls' depiction of Wharton social lives. That was one of the most absurd parts of the book. Wharton students are very involved on campus in all sorts of activities, whether it's clubs, varsity athletics, greek life, etc. Trust me - Wharton students HAVE social lives, and they don't revolve around business.</p>
<p>Thanks, guys. Whartonalum- do you think it is feasible to do fairly well at Wharton and be a three season athlete? What else did you think of Running of the Bulls? I am interested in an alum's perspective. It certainly sounds like hell, but it is a fascinating book.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild...as said before, its absolutely possible to be a varsity athlete and a top Wharton student, its just about setting priorities and time management--which your child is obviously good at, having excelled at school and sports thus far.</p>
<p>On a different note, I can't believe that I haven't even heard of Running of the Bulls. I'm a Wharton alum in law school, so my non-law reading has been minimal in the last few yrs. Would you care to share your impressions--as a parent, is there anything that really stuck out to you in the book? Having not even read the book, I'd venture to guess that the book made it sound like everyone coming out of Wharton is virtually guaranteed a 6 figure salary immediately; this is one of the biggest misconceptions that Wharton students and alums always throw around, sometimes to justify why they are working so hard in college.</p>
<p>aj- Running of the Bulls focuses on the recruiting process (mainly fall of senior year but also covers recruiting for post-junior year internships) and how stressful it is. It is realistic about the salaries and the fluctuations in the economy which can throw a wrinkle into things. It follows about 6 kids through the process- all the trips to NY for entire days of interviews, trying to fit exams and papers in along with day after day of interviewing..... It is clear that the investment banker path is the one which really is the toughest. It talks about the quantitative questions thrown at the kids in the interviews. The kids frequently get little or no sleep. It also describes the various internships the kids had during that one summer. I would recommend the book and I would love to hear from more Wharton alums about it. It briefly mentions some fraternity, sorority and community service work, but it is clear that the main focus of your life at Wharton is landing one of these jobs (according to the author).</p>
<p>Interesting..thanks for the summary, I"m definitely going to check it out. From your description it sounds very accurate. Once you're a junior or senior Wharton the focus of life becomes getting one of these IB jobs and the interview process is grueling, esp. for a 21 yr old [the worries about these jobs start for frosh and sophs also because an internship at one of these firms as an underclassmen is a huge resume builder]. Its the type of interview process that you'd expect MBAs and other professionals to go through at the ages of 25-30, with the all day interviews, having finance questions thrown at you, having open ended questions thrown at you to test your creativity and ability to react esp. in consulting and marketing jobs [ex. why is a tennis ball fuzzy; how many taxi cabs are there in NYC; how many cups of coffee do all the Starbucks in NYC combined sell in 1 day--they don't care what the answer is but they want to see if you can reason through it and come up with and argue to support a particular answer; ]. </p>
<p>I wouldn't say that there is no time or interest in frats, sororities, and ECs because there is usually. But during the recruiting semesters, there is little time or energy for these things--these are on the back burner during the spring of junior yr when everyone is trying to land an IB or consulting internship [this is a very competitive process and a must--because if you don't have an offer in hand when you come back as a senior, recruiting for regular IB and consulting jobs is MUCH harder] and during the fall of senior yr [sometimes continuing through the entire senior year though--theres no guarantee that you'll land a job in the beginning of Oct and then coast the rest of senior yr]. I always thought the fall semesters were easier at Wharton, except for senior year, because you don't have any recruiting and interviewing worries re: your summer internship; all you have to worry about is your classes, leaving lots of time for a social life. Every spring semester, there is a constant worry re: what if I don't get a good internship or what if I don't get an internship at all, what will I say in my interviews next yr etc.</p>
<p>The thing that you all need to keep in mind is that while that is generally accurate it's not the experience that everyone goes through. I didn't do FNCE and wasn't obsessed with I-Banking and didn't stress out the way the students highlighted do. They only profiled 7 students and by no means are these students representative of the entire Wharton student body or even the senior class.</p>
<p>Wharton students have plenty of time for extracurriculars and the only people who freak out and stress out and are obsessed with internships and jobs are the ones who are so narrowly focused on I-Banking and the top consulting firms.</p>
<p>Please don't assume that all Wharton students are like the 7 that they profiled.</p>
<p>my roommate is on our basketball team (way tough to get into) but the thing with him is htat he is insanely smart and doesnt need to study so he's fine at penn...but yeah he's an exception and i dont recomend that for anyone</p>